1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tape printing apparatus for printing entered characters, such as letters and symbols, on a tape, so as to obtain printed labels or the like.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, in word processors or the like, it is a well-known function to designate a desired position in a document being edited on a display screen and call a selected one of registered (stored) documents to insert the same at the designated position in the document being edited. Normally, in a document prepared by using a word processor or the like, portions of the document separately and sequentially set forth on contiguous pages, that is, pages adjacent to each other, are grasped (read) as consecutive portions of the document, and hence, even if a page break is inserted at an intermediate portion of the registered document called and inserted, it gives little sense of disorder or incongruity.
On the other hand, in tape printing apparatuses, a printed portion of a tape is cut off and the cut-off piece of the tape is affixed to a desired object or article. Therefore, it is more important to make the appearance of the printed image attractive than to allow the reader to follow a sequence of contents set forth in separate paragraphs (divisions) contiguous in the direction of length of the tape. It should be noted that the paragraphs (divisions) of a document processed by the tape printing apparatus for printing on the tape correspond to pages of a document processed by the word processor. The attractive appearance of the printed image can be realized by making each breakpoint of contents of the document correspondent to a break of each paragraph (division) on the tape to cause a whole continuous or serial portion of the contents to be contained in each division, even if the length of lines (i.e. length of each division) may vary from division to division.
To this end, a tape printing apparatus has been proposed e.g. by (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 6-15909) which incorporates the function of word processors described above and is improved in the above-mentioned respect in that when a registered document is called and inserted into a document being edited, division break-inserting data is inserted, for instance, immediately before or immediately after the inserted registered document to thereby insert the registered document as an independent or separate division.
In the proposed tape printing apparatus, however, attention is paid only to the registered document and hence, if the registered document is called when a cursor for designating an inserting position is located at an intermediate portion of a division of the document being edited i.e. document for editing (hereinafter referred to as "editing document"), the result is that the continuous or serial contents of the division of the editing document is separated by the inserted document.
FIG. 22 shows an editing document U91, which is being prepared for printing and provides a print image M91 when printed, and a registered document U97, which was prepared and registered to provide a print image M97 when printed. When the registered document is called and inserted into the editing document, if the cursor K for designating an inserting position is located at an intermediate portion of a division of the editing document U91 (screen T91), the series of document data of the division of the editing document are undesirably separated (screen T100), and provides a print image M100 when printed.
In the above process, if the user has carried out a call-and-insert operation without being conscious of the above inconvenience, he has to take the trouble of restoring the separated editing document at the cost of time and effort. Further, to prevent the above problem, it is required that the user finds out a breakpoint between divisions of an editing document where a called registered document should be inserted, by viewing the editing document on a display screen smaller in size than that of a word processor, and then accurately places the cursor at the breakpoint before a call-and-insert operation carried out for the registered document. In any case, the call-and-insert operation has been a troublesome time-consuming one.